Poor Ari. He can never catch a break! Besides his screwed up family, sad love life, annoying neighbors and messed up town, his shadow is posessed by the evil king Stan! All because he heroically wanted to help his sister who was under the Pig Latin curse. And Stan isn't really bad enough to be considered evil, he's more of a goofball than anything else with more ego than common sense. Hard luck Ari is then forced to help Stan take out all of the self-proclaimed Evil Kings which have somehow snatched Stan's power while he was trapped in his bottle awaiting a host's shadow. Along the way things get even weirder when he is joined by a would-be heroine with a bright pink shadow, a freaky quack scientist, a crappy idol singer, a snotty psycho hosebeast of a princess, a magician and a bull/man thing. Poor Ari.
As with a lot of obscure games I buy, I usually end up watching my sister play them, naturally this makes her more of an authority on them than I (well... sometimes). Watching her play has taught me a few things, but I've learned a lot in the precious time I can steal it away from her. Okage is an RPG, a simplistic one. It seems aimed at a younger crowd who is new to RPGs and has an aesthetic style to it that appeals to fans of TIm Burton's NIGHTMARE BEFORE CHRISTMAS and the various macabre works of Edward Gorrey(sp?). The result is a colorful, beatiful and twisted world filled with sarcasm and a bizarre sense of humour. The game itself is quite simple, not quite as simple as say Final Fantasy: Mystic Quest (which was Square's Entry Level RPG for beginners new to the Genre. Think Final Fantasy w/ training wheels), but for veteran RPG buffs this is what we might call "cake". But is this cake worth eating? Read on.
Why it sucks: Apparently no one thought of making the camera show a little more of where you're going? After wandering around for awhile in between towns and dungeons, I noticed my neck hurt like hell! The camera looks forward and down more than in the direction you're going and the natural reaction I've gotten is that people unconciously compensate for this problem by holding their head in an awkward position. This problem rears its head all over the place from houses, to dungeons as well. I watched my sister almost explode with rage as she found pitfall, after pitfall, after pitfall because she couldn't see where she was going. Of course she didn't bother to be careful either, but considering the fact that she couldn't see jack when she turned a corner I can't blame her for gettin frustrated. The battle system is a whole mess of problems, besides being slow enough to make you want to slit your wrists at times and at other times changing its pace to your disadvantage and overwhelming you when you least expect it, the game is cheap. In boss fights and normal encounters you'll be forced to fight anywhere from 3 to 8 (maybe 9). And the game is remarkably logical about who to attack, if Ari dies in a battle it's game over! With bizarre precision (mostly in boss fights where they tout all the neat spells), the enemies will gang up on Ari and can even attack him together! 2 at a time can pirouette on over and beat him senseless, and they do it in turns so you never quite know how bad the beating will be that he'll get! This in turn forces you to use massive amounts of healing items on Ari just anticipating attacks >_< Then there's some sort of "love points" side game going on with the female characters in the game. After getting the cold shoulder from his childhood friend and biggest crush after she finds out he "does tricks" with his shadow, you must meet new women and find someone to give the music box Ari's mom gave you. However there isn't enough interaction with the girlies to make it worthwhile, depending on whose butt you kiss or agree with the most earns you points in their direction. My personal prefence is for Rosalyn :) And so far, according the fortune tellers hiding out in Inns, she's my love... or something. But there honestly isn't enough interaction with the girls to make it fun, and since you have to give the music box to that princess it's like you don't have a choice at all! >_< The music is enough to gave some people's heads to explode, which I can understand. THe music combined with the scenery makes for a wonderful crack fantasy. Extremely freaky package all together, which may or may not be a problem for some people, but has enough basic flaws to scare a lot of people off. Also the side quests are quite small, the two things that I can recall are the "tiny gears" and the parts for the recorder thingy. Besides hunting for parts there's not much to do besides the main adventure of hunting for the Evil Kings.
Why it rules!: I love the overall look of this game! The beautiful, yet twisted world of Okage scores major points simply with its sharp and eye catching visuals matched with it's bizarre design and music. Near the end, the story starts making a freaky sort of sense when you learn the "truth" and I'm just glad it's not another Xenogears sort of "truth". >_< It's a fun game! And thankfully leveling actually means something in this so if you're one of those persistent SOBs then you'll have no trouble racking up EXP and slicing through enemies like a hot knife through butter! The system is very easy and operates at a speed which is perfect for new RPG players, it also is probably the most user friendly RPG I've played since Mystic Quest since it explains just about EVERYTHING you do in the menu as simply as possible. A great set of training wheels for those who'd like to tackle RPGs at a slower pace and gradually work their way up to say Wild Arms or Final Fantasy.
Overal: Okage is cool. But if you're a hardcore RPG player like me, you'll either grow impatient with this VERY fast or you'll plow through in a matter of days and return it. For the new RPG gamer this is a great investment with its fundamental and simplistic menu and gameplay you'll come to grasp the ideas for long standing and hardcore games like the Final Fantasy series and other major RPGs.
Besides that, the game is a beautifully crafted visual odessey. Personally I love the way everything looks and feels and the sarcastic banter everyone throws at you, not to mention the wholly weird overall flavor it has. It's a great game, assuming it appeals to you. Honestly I couldn't blame anyone for either freaking out or returning it the day they bought it because everything is so weird and well... "cake". Not recommended for those who want some serious challenge (or those without chiropractic care), but for fans of weird and those needing something to floss their RPG teeth with it's definately worth your time.